A Practical Failure Approach of Burst Assessment of Aero Engine Disc

The design of aero-engine disc is subjected to stringent regulations owing to their operation under high mechanical and thermal stresses. These structures must be designed as a fail-safe component with the aim of preventing incident. Regulatory authorities compel engine manufacturers to undergo spin-tests or coupon-tests on identical or similar discs to fulfill qualification and certification requirements. Spin-testing of aero-engine discs performs at increasing rotating speed, constant temperature and under vacuum conditions. However, these experiments are both costly and time-consuming. The purpose of this paper is to present a practical failure approach aimed at replacing physical test facilities with simulations based on both implicit and explicit finite element analysis methods. Typically, burst calculations rely on the average hoop stress in axisymmetric regions. However, stress components in the axial and radial directions may exist in three-dimensional features. The model is employed to predict the burst speed, identify burst locations and role of stress concentration on the disc under varied operation conditions. In order to initiate damage accurately, considerations are given to factors such as crack driving force, plastic deformation, and stress triaxiality. Results obtained from both ANSYS and LS-DYNA solvers are utilized to ensure precise calculations of burst speed, location, and stress concentration factors. The findings of the structural integrity assessment of an aero-engine disc exhibit consistent agreement between each solver in term of crack propagation and the determination of critical speed.